Sonic Unleashed

"Severely underrated...one of the best games I have ever played, and possibly the best Sonic has ever had."

When I first heard about Sonic Unleashed, I thought it was probable that it would be bad. I was told about the Werehog levels, and (on top of being angry at the term 'Werehog' which is completely nonsensical) assumed they were actually as bad as they sounded.

Well, I was wrong.

I downloaded the demo on XBL...and it blew me away. I played that demo level at least 40 times, getting faster and faster every time. I wanted this game. I was still skeptical- even if the Werehog levels were poor, I wanted it just for the day levels.

And...I got it. And...I was blown away even more. It completely blew away my expectations and I now know that it is severely underrated.

Concept:

The concept is that, well, it's Sonic. But something happened, and now he transforms at night into a large, hulking version of himself with stretchy arms and wolf-like features and tendencies. So, that's how the game works. There are daytime levels and night time levels, Sonic and Werehog Sonic respectively. The story is that Dr. Eggman finally did something right. It opens with an amazing cutscene of Sonic fighting Dr. Eggman, engaged already in trying to stop him, and being trapped, along with the chaos emeralds. Eggman fires some sort of ray, which not only unleashes an amazing power from inside the planet, but also breaks it into pieces floating around the core, and affects sonic as a side effect and creates the Werehog. So sonic has to go around the world to try and put it back together and stop the bad guy.

Gameplay:

The game introduces you to itself very well. The daytime levels are either 3rd person or pseudo-2-dimensional from the side. The camera will switch from behind sonic to his side when needed, and you're also more "on rails" during the 2D segments, just like in older games. The third person segments are more like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 levels, the 2D ones are more like the older games, except so much better. Collecting rings gives you 'Ring Energy' which is used for boosting, which significantly increases your speed- and, in some levels, can be used the entire way, assuming you have the reaction ability to miss all the obstacles. It's incredibly fast and incredibly fun, although sometimes a tad bit frustrating- but once you've got a level down and can do it straight through with little problem, you feel very satisfied, and just want to get it perfectly.

Then there are the night levels, where you are the Werehog. In these, you run around in 3rd person, you platform, and you beat-em-up. Sonic can do various combos and learn more. Enemies who are mostly defeated become open for attack and you can engage in quicktime reaction segments to finish them off in one hit. These levels...are LONG. They take on average just under 20 minutes the first time. This can get annoying, so set time aside to play them before you play. They're also rather hard. The platforming is difficult but not necessarily frustrating- my favorite example being a level where you climb the inside of a clock tower. Normally this would be a horribly frustrating experience, because we all know how hard it is to stay into a platformer when you fall and have to start over. But that's the thing- it was hard, it was intense, but I did not fall. It was amazing. They CAN be frustrating sometimes, but really...it's hard to explain. I, personally, don't have much of a problem with that. I feel great when I finally complete something in this game if it is giving me trouble. These levels are severely underrated. Sure, they aren't really sonic, and they aren't fast. But they aren't bad.

Which leads me to controls- people complain that the Werehog segments are poorly controlled. I do not know what they are talking about. Sonic can't jump very well as the werehog, but that doesn't mean poor controls. To be honest, I can't think of anything that would make someone say they are bad. Control stick to move, triggers to dash, X and Y to attack, B to grab enemies and objects, X to throw them, B to hang on ledges and such, X to drop from them. It's not complicated and it isn't difficult to do.

The Daytime levels have equally simple controls. Control stick to move, A to jump, X to boost, Y to ring dash, B to stomp or slide, and LB and RB to sidestep.These work perfectly. The game will warn you with a prompt above an object if you need to slide under it, and will warn you in the middle of the screen if you need to sidestep. Sidestepping moves sonic a set distance to the side(or to the next rail, if you are grinding on a rail), and is usually used to quickly avoid obstacles and such.

And there is a good number of levels, too! And there's DLC on top of that, which is supposedly very great and very well priced- Sega has supported this game greatly. Each DLC is 250 points and has a few stages. Real stages- whole night and day stages. That's some damn good support for a game.

Between levels, you use the world map to select a location- one of 7 real-world themed towns, which you then explore. You can talk to people, help them with stuff, buy things, or go to the Entrance Stage. These are little mini areas where you find little portals to the actual levels.

In all of these- Towns, Entrance Stages, and Levels- there are "Medals"- Sun and Moon. These are used to get into more levels. You may have seen people complain that it is difficult to have to go back and backtrack to get more medals to get into a stage. Thing is, I only had to do this ONCE. The medals are relatively easy to find your first time through a level. You WILL leave a lot behind, but I never had so few that I had to go back except for one single occassion.

These do help you get to optional levels, though. You don't actually have to do most of the levels available to you. There's basically one night and one day stage per city that you absolutely HAVE to do. But once you do these, you can redo them or do special trials for them. This is especially fun with the bosses who are beautifully choreographed and a blast to beat.

Music:

The music is amazing. Every single song is memorable. You can get Records in game which let you listen to it whenever you want- which is an awesome feature, considering THE MUSIC IS AMAZING. The night themes are relatively long- about 10 minutes. The boss themes are fantastic, and the daytime ones are usually remixes of the victory fanfare made to sound intense and scary, and the Nighttime one is just an insane big-band-style fast-paced awesome-tastic extravaganza. That is a good way to describe it. This game absolutely excels with the music. But it also excels with...

Graphics:

This is one of the prettiest gaming experiences I have ever had. The first level is a grassy rocky area on cliffs by the sea, and the second level is going through the city that follows- both of which are BEAUTIFUL. Pretty white buildings with plenty of detail, lots of beautiful foliage, blue blue water and blue blue sky...all of these are impressive even when zooming through the level and boosting the whole time, and it works this way for every single level. A later level is set in what is essentially a rainforest on the edge of tropical waters- both of which you speed through(sonic can run on water if boosting!). This level does have a few slowdown issues, but it is absolutely beautiful. If you're going slow, you can sometimes see background details popping in, but that's nothing to get freaked out about. It's impressive that the game can stream these levels, to begin with. In fact, there are a few levels that are lap-based- and each lap, the layout changes drastically. That just kinda blows my mind that it can change in real time like that.

I've heard people talk about slowdown in the game but I experienced none except for that level. Well, sometimes in the night levels, the game would slow for a second when defeating an enemy, but it always felt like it was supposed to...It's not a bother, really. the game is beautiful and has beautiful cutscenes.

The character design is pretty nice, too. I really like the human characters. They make me think of stop-motion models, probably due to their usually large heads and skinny bodies. But they're all nice to look at, and suit the area they're in- the people in the middle eastern style area aer distinctly middle eastern- but it isn't stereotypes, or caricatures- they just look appropriate, just like real humans, except everyone is stylized. Same goes for all areas.


Replayability:

Amazing. I've played one level over 60 times now, counting the demo plays. And each level has various challenges to do- a few levels of time trials(each one more restrictive), ring-collecting challenges, enemy-defeating challenges...there's a lot. There's also the optional levels, and helping out townspeople with stuff. If you pay attention, these townspeople have their own stories to follow, which is sometime to look out for on a subsequent playthrough, although why you'd want to start entirely over I'm not sure. It's just a fun game to pick up and play even once you beat it, especially to try and get S-Rank on everything!

Overall:

This is a beautiful game with amazing gameplay. That's all there is to it. I am not a fan of the old 2D Sonic games- they seemed restrictive and like there were too many obstacles to really speed by, but going slow was annoying. The Gameboy Advance sonic games got rid of these obstacles, but then they didn't have enough challenge! This is an absolutely perfect blend. You go fast, you have fun, you are challenged, and you have to pay attention and do more than just jump sometimes. This is everything I have ever wanted Sonic to be. I have to have a drink on hand when playing because my hands sweat so much that I start to feel dehydrated.

It's a fantastic game that is at LEAST worth a rental, and is severely underrated. It's one of the best games I own, and one of the best I've played, and probably the best Sonic game I've ever experienced. It's simply marred by the opinions of the "New Sonic games suck" bandwagon and the "Change is scary!" majority, due to the Werehog levels. This is a change for the better. Of course, the game would've sold more if it was entirely daytime levels, but I like the night levels and think all day levels would be boring and become redundant- same for all Night levels. So for me, it is a change for the better. I love it.

Go rent it. You won't want to return it.

Pros:
-Beautiful
-Fast
-Incredible Music
-Difficult Platforming levels
-Plenty to do

Cons:
-Occasionally frustrating
-Night levels can run a little long

9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/09

Game Release: Sonic Unleashed (US, 11/20/08)